Victim Movements: From Diversified Needs to Varying Criminal Justice Agenda's

Abstract

The position of victims of crime has shown marked improvement over the past 30 years. Where in the 1970's the victim of crime was the forgotten party of the criminal justice system, by the turn of the century the victim has returned. Compensation schemes have been set up, victim assistance, empowerment and support programmes have been developed, victims have been allotted participatory and information rights and victims' treatment by organisations within the criminal justice system has improved.

The rise of the victim has been associated with the growth of a unified ‘victim movement’; a social movement that strives to improve the position of victims of crime. However it is questionable whether the victim movement should be viewed as a unitary phenomenon. Instead of one movement, there appear to be a number of victim movements. There are differences between the victim advocates in the United States, Victim Support in Europe, the violence against women movement and proponents of restorative justice. There has been some analysis of the reason for the divergent development in countries, which has focused on factors exogenous to the characteristics of the victims represented by the different movements. In this paper however the development is linked to endogenous factors: differences in victims’ needs and the stereotypes employed by the different movements are an important explanation for the divergent development in organisations representing victims interest, which in turn influences victim policy.

Keywords: Victimology, ideal victim, victim policy

JEL Classification: Kl14